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the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The main findings for August 2012 were:
Critical Care Beds
There were 3,712 adult critical care beds available with 2,891 occupied, giving…

The main findings for August 2012 were:

Critical Care Beds

There were 3,712 adult critical care beds available with 2,891 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 77.9%. This is consistent with the low occupancy rates observed during the summer months and is comparable to August 2011, where the figure was 79.7%.

There were 411 paediatric critical care beds available and 287 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 69.8%. This is higher than August 2011, where the figure was 66.9%, but lower than rates typically seen over winter.

There were 1,374 neo-natal critical care beds available and 979 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 71.3%. This is lower than August 2011, where the figure was 72.3%. Neo-natal critical care occupancy rates have been fairly stable over the past year, ranging between 70.4% and 76.4%.

Table 1 shows Critical Care Bed Occupancy rates since August 2010.

Details of critical care data for individual organisations are available on the Department of Health website.

Cancelled Urgent Operations

The number of urgent operations cancelled was 269, which compares to 320 in July 2012 and 254 in August 2011. Cancelled urgent operations have ranged between 254 and 419 in the past 12 months.

Table 2 shows information on urgent operations cancelled from August 2010 to August 2012.

There were 3,960 patients delayed atmidnighton the last Thursday of the month, of which 2,396 were acute patients.

There were 120,128 total delayed days during the month, of which 72,638 were acute. 66% of all delays were attributable to the NHS, 27% were attributable to Social Care and 7% where both agencies were responsible.

The main reason for NHS delays was “patients awaiting further non-acute NHS care”, this accounted for 31% of all NHS delays. The main reason for Social Care delays was “patients awaiting a residential home placement or availability”, this accounted for 27% of all Social Care delays. Where both the NHS and Social Care are attributable, the major reason for delay was “patients awaiting completion of assessment”.

This distribution of delays against responsible organisation has been gradually changing over the last year. Delays attributable to the NHS have increased by 8,149 days since August 2011 and now account for 66% of all delayed days, compared to 60% in August 2011.

The distribution of delays between the reasons for DTOC remains broadly similar compared to a year ago (August 2011). However, there has been an increase in delays caused by patients waiting for further non-acute NHS care of 4,096 more delayed days.

The split between acute and non-acute delays is similar to recent months (60% and 40% of all delays, respectively), but the share of delays that are in acute care has risen 6 percentage points over the last year (from 54% in August 2011).

Table 2 shows information on delayed transfers of care from August 2010 to August 2012. Table 3 shows the number of delayed transfers of care by type of care, reason for delay and responsible organisation for August 2012.

Data relating to the number of available and occupied critical care beds is a monthly snapshot taken at midnight on the last Thursday of each month and can fluctuate from month to month.

2. **Delayed Transfers of Care data**

A delayed transfer of care occurs when a patient is medically fit for discharge from acute or non-acute care and is still occupying a bed. For a more detailed definition please read the guidance on the DH website.

Data on the number of patients with a delayed transfers of care is a monthly snapshot taken atmidnighton the last Thursday of each month and can fluctuate from month to month. Data on the number of delayed days is a cumulative figure for the month and therefore, the two are not comparable.

Data on delayed transfers of care is collected from providers of NHS funded care and is split by:

Local Authority data reflects data on a regional population basis, i.e. Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibility (CASSRs) that are responsible for all patients who reside in their region.

4. **Data Quality**

Monthly SitReps data has been collected and published since August 2010. Prior to August 2010, data was collected weekly and was un-validated management information.

Delayed transfers of care data published during the early months of the collection from August 2010 to October 2010 should be treated with a degree of caution as a change from a weekly to a monthly data collection led to data quality issues. Since October, there has been a significant improvement in the coverage and accuracy of this data.

Critical care data published until January should be treated with a degree of caution as data on Critical Care beds was published bi-annually in a separate collection until January 2011. Since February 2011, there has been a significant improvement in the coverage and accuracy of this data.

5. **Data Availability**

Monthly Sitreps data is published approximately 3 - 4 weeks after the end of the reference period.

6. **Revisions**

Revisions to previous month’s data are made in line with the Department of Health’s revisions protocol for performance monitoring data. Future revisions will be made on a six monthly cycle. The revisions protocol can be found on the DH website.

All data in this publication was last revised in April 2012.

7. **Feedback Welcomed**

We welcome feedback on the content and presentation of Critical Care, Cancelled Operations and Delayed Transfers of Care statistics within this Statistical Press Notice and those published on the DH website. Please email any comments on this, or any other issues regarding the SitReps data and statistics, to: unify2@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Additional Information

For press enquiries, please refer to the Department of Health website for the relevant contact details.

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) statistician responsible for producing these data is: